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When worlds collide: libraries & writing centers.

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Abstract

Most college campuses have writing centers, where students can get help from professional and peer tutors with their writing skills. When students need research help, they can get help from librarians. But wouldn't it be great if writing centers and libraries could collaborate and combine the benefits of peer tutoring with research assistance? This article presents one collaborative approach to combining a writing center's peer tutoring program with a library's research assistance program.

One World: the Writing Center

I used to cringe when I heard the word 'tutor.' I suppose it's because the word had negative connotations for me--a person gets a tutor because they're not good enough at something. In my mind, that meant a school subject. I was never good at math when I was a student, and I often came home from school frustrated at my inability to easily understand the subject. My mother, who has taught for some 20-odd years, offered to find me a tutor. I was horrified: the thought of a mostly straight-A student needing a tutor? It was like she had suggested I take remedial math. I turned down her well-intentioned offer and studied harder. Years later, I regret it. I still can't do math, but over the years, I've learned about the benefits of tutoring, having been a tutor myself--I tutored friends in chemistry and English, and I served as a reading tutor through Americorps. I learned that a tutor is not a person who points out your mistakes; a tutor is a person who helps you over the bumps and makes you realize that you really can do it--whatever it is--by yourself. They are encouragers.

That's why, when I started college, I was impressed by the number of tutoring labs my undergraduate institute had. It seemed like every department offered tutoring. There wasn't a writing center, per se--just a couple of graduate assistants in the English department offering help to students writing papers. Several of my classmates took advantage of this make-shift writing center--it helped them improve their composition grades by teaching them how to organize the thoughts and ideas in their papers, how to properly format the information, and produce a paper that clearly and forcibly put their point across. The tutors never told them what to write; they just helped them learn how to write. When I began working as a professional librarian, I was excited to find out that the university I was working for had a writing center. I have a B.A. in English, and I thought I would volunteer at the center. Then I found out that their tutors are almost all undergraduates....

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